The sub-compact Mazda 2, a long-running staple of the Mazda line in Europe and Japan, has been launched for the first time in the United States as a 2011 model at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show. There have also been vague rumblings that the Mazda 2 is set to go worldwide, and might eventually come to the GCC.
The redesigned 2011 Hyundai Sonata has finally had its first reveal outside Korea, at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show. After years of producing boring clones of existing Japanese models, the new Sonata is so far “out there” that it makes even premium brands look cheap in comparison, even if it ultimately looks bulkier than its intended “four-door coupe” styling target.
The 2010 Infiniti G37 sedan has received a moderate facelift, featuring reshaped headlights, grille, bumpers and wheels, while leaving the rest of the car unchanged. It was unveiled at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show this week.
Toyota has agreed to replace the accelerator pedal with a shorter one on 3.8 million cars sold in the United States as part of its biggest factory recall in history. Cars receiving the modification will include the Toyota Camry, the Toyota Avalon, the Lexus ES and the Lexus IS.
Shanghai GM has unveiled the new 2010 Cadillac SLS for the Chinese market at the 2009 Guangzhou Auto Show. More importantly, the Chinese-built SLS is a part of Cadillac’s GCC line-up.
The all-new 2011 Kia Cadenza luxury sedan, revealed in Korea recently as the Kia K7, will have its overseas world premiere at the 2009 Riyadh Motor Show in Saudi Arabia on 12 December, followed immediately by an appearance at the 2009 Dubai Motor Show on 15 December. Unfortunately, after much speculation that the Cadenza is a large rear-wheel-drive sedan based on the Hyundai Genesis, it turns out that the Cadenza is really a front-wheel-drive sedan, likely derived from the Hyundai Sonata platform.
The U.S. market gets an extensive line of Toyota 4×4 models, including the 4Runner and Highlander to fill up the midsize segment. That left no room for the Prado, which is what the rest of the world gets. However, Toyota has been selling a slightly-altered version of the Prado in the United States, calling it the Lexus GX470. That model has now been replaced by a new 2010 GX460 model, based on the all-new 2010 Prado.
As far as we know, we are the first people to review the 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado in the desert. Everyone else drove it “off-road” at the launch event, to which we were not invited, but that was a carefully-planned event with easy gravel jaunts anyway. We took our Prado VX-L tester on the same dunes used by desert safari outfits in Dubai.
In what looks to be a marketing collaboration between Nissan Middle East, Abu Dhabi Police and Yas Marina F1, a Nissan GT-R was displayed at the recently-concluded Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in full Abu Dhabi police livery.
The 2010 Toyota “Land Cruiser” Prado is currently the most researched vehicle in the region. We got one for two days, and being the only one we’ve seen on the road so far, we would’ve thought that we’d be swarmed by middle-aged family men on the streets of Dubai, inquiring about this dream car. But we weren’t. We got a few people standing around staring at it here and there, but they were probably the intelligent ones. Because if you don’t concentrate hard enough, it is easy to dismiss it as the old model.